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Last night I attended a United Methodist Ash Wednesday service. It's been a very long time since I've been to church but I was so glad to be there. Some of the things I observed were so neat. This church last Palm Sunday burned the branches they used in their Palm Sunday service to have ashes for this years Ash Wednesday service. Their youth came up with the idea! What a joy to see a youth group so passionate about their faith!
It was a very short service reflecting on the next 40 days, lent and forgiveness of sins.
"Believe in the gospel of christ and be forgiven" was the benediction the minister spoke to us as we received the ashes.
I don't know theology well enough to know how I feel about a lot of things, but I do know this...
Gathering together is important.
Forgive my neglect Father and thank you for the service last night and your Holy Spirit's touch that goes deep into my belly.
me
a really good idea
2 comments:
I would say that not only is gathering together important, but it's essential to the Christian faith. I can want to better myself for the good of myself, but that only lasts so long. To belong to a community and to be expected to better myself, with help, then the desire grows and is sustained. By better myself I mean more align with Christ as best as I know it at the time.
Anyway, to belong to something greater than myself is the only way to live the Christian lifestyle. Community - It's required.... just not seen too often. I'm one that desires this community so bad, but it's so hard to find. Maybe we should start an eCommunity thing that takes off on eHarmony? However, the whole beauty of the church is to find unity in diversity... University. Huh... that's why a lot of Christians started Universities
Hebrews 10:23-25
"Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching."
Gathering together in fellowship, be it a formal church, house church, or just a gathering of like-minded Christ-followers is essential. God may call an individual to a time or period of solitude, but never since the creation of man has God intended for us to travel this journey of holiness alone. Being with others with the goal of serving the Lord is edifying, gratifying, and even more than that, it is part of our act of worship; we serve Him by serving others.
Too often this idea of fellowship is distorted and we avoid gathering together because of our pettiness. This is simply not tolerable in the body of Christ. We are the body; we are all part of the same body. We would never forsake a part of our physical body (“Oh, I am just not going to wash my left foot ever again because I think it looks ugly”… or whatever our hang-up is…) and so it is with the body of Christ. Each part of the body serves the body as a whole; as Christ-followers, we do this by gathering together, like the first Christ-followers in Acts 2:42-47: “They committed themselves to the teaching of the apostles, the life together, the common meal, and the prayers. Everyone around was in awe--all those wonders and signs done through the apostles! And all the believers lived in a wonderful harmony, holding everything in common. They sold whatever they owned and pooled their resources so that each person's need was met. They followed a daily discipline of worship in the Temple followed by meals at home, every meal a celebration, exuberant and joyful, as they praised God. People in general liked what they saw. Every day their number grew as God added those who were saved.”
When I think of church, this is my hope and longing. And I thank God that I have begun to find.
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